Those Little Moments
by Sanru
Summary: Those little moments, when the world seems perfect in every sense, is usually just the herald that everything is about to fall apart.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own this franchise even if the memorabilia in my study makes it look like I do.

Author Notes: Just something that came out of the blue. Anyone notice how it is nearly impossible to write Mikey serious? It's probably why I like writing with him in my stories so much.

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Those Little Moments

Chapter One

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Leonardo slide down a rooftop, crouched low and muscles coiled. The edge was rapidly approaching but instead of feeling any kind of dread, he felt a grin break across his face. His leading foot was a few inches from the end when he sprang upwards with all the strength he had held back for so long. He rocketed over the alleyway, hitting the flat roof on the other side of it, rolling a few times to help cushion his landing before gaining his footing again and running on.

A whoop from behind him proved that he wasn't the only one enjoying this late night run. He was merely going about it in a way much more fitting for a ninja. Part of him wanted to get after his youngest brother. Silence was the key when someone wanted to move about undetected but there was something about this night -this moment- that made him hold his tongue. Whether it was because of the calm stillness of the area or of the lack of any threats he couldn't be sure, so he continued on, knowing that his brothers remains close behind him as they danced their way over the rooftops.

Mikey flipped past him with another whoop, doing a somersault and springing off his hands right at the edge of the rooftop. There was no way he would be able to make the next rooftop. He had used up most of his momentum in the flip but instead of worrying Leo just smiled as he approached the same edge of the roof.

Out of the corner of his eye he had noticed Donatello speeding towards the gap with his bo out. His second youngest brother leapt up and held out the bo to Mikey. The youngest grabbed the edge and Donatello swung him around, giving his younger brother his momentum so he could reach the edge. Instead of letting go of the bo however, Mikey spun with it, whipping Donatello forward and up onto the roof he was now on. Donnie had to roll with the force of the throw but bounded to his feet with a smile on his face.

Showoffs…

Raph was off to his left and slightly behind him. It wasn't that he wasn't fast -he could sprint as fast as Michelangelo when the time called for it- but he couldn't keep that speed up for a long time. Raphael had to modes for travel, fast or long distance. He couldn't do both at once.

However, this was a new low even for him though. He usually tried to stay in front of Leo just for the competitiveness but it was like his spirit wasn't into the run. Odd. Leo made a point to slow down a bit even as Mikey challenged Don to a race to the end of the street. The second younger brother took it with much enthusiasm and they bolted off across the rooftops, taunting and laughing at each other. Leo smiled, knowing that they would wait for them when they reached the finish line, now he could talk to Raph.

Who was starting to speeding up.

Something was really wrong and the previous good mood he had been in vanished. "What is it?" He asked as he moved slightly closer to his brother and kept pace with him.

Raph growled in frustration. "Just a feeling I got," he admitted after a moment. "Like something bad is about to happen."

If there was one thing Leo tried not to take for granted it was a gut feeling, especially when their safety was involved. "Let's catch up with Don and Mikey and hea-"

Mikey's girly scream cut through the air and Leo felt like his heart skipped a beat.

Raph barreled forward, the speed he had been keeping in check was let go so he could get to his little brother quicker. Leo had been caught flat footed, worried but not expecting anything to happen mere seconds after Raph's warning. Besides the barest moment of irrational anger at his lack of readiness, Leo had half a second to be thankful of his tardiness as he caught sight of indiscernible movement in the shadows near a vent duct Raph was about to run pass.

"DUCK!" Leo yelled even as he caught a flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye. He didn't bother turning to see what it was but let the years of training have him dodge to the side, crouching low and diving into a forward roll. His movements were closely followed by the faint wisp of a blade as his attacker tried to follow his movements.

He came out of his roll, popping to his feet at the same time as he drew his swords. He didn't even bother to look behind him already knowing that there was a sword slashing in a downward arch towards his shoulder. All he did was spin to the side, lowering his shoulder enough to dodge the sword and kneeing his now off balanced opponent in the side. He wasn't surprised to see the Foot ninja as he flinch way as he was hit causing him to near drop his weapon. Considering the sudden ambush and rooftop environment he had been expecting the Foot was behind it.

Annoyed growls and the clashing of steel behind him was all he needed to hear to know that Raphael had dodged his ambusher and was laying down some serious hurt that he was giving his own assailant. He slammed the pommel of his katana into the side of the ninja's neck. It didn't have enough strength to break it, he was too careful to let that happen, but it did have enough force to cause the boneless and now unconscious figure to slump heavily to the ground.

Leo didn't even get a moment to draw a breath before he was bringing up both swords to bare. The hilts vibrated as the loud chime of metal hitting metal filled his ears as he shoved both swords off to either side unbalancing the two ninjas that had tried attacking him at once in a pincer maneuver. A sidekick to the left drove the ninja further away as he turned towards the other.

It was as simple as three hits. One with his katana to knock aside the ninja's sword. Two was a follow up punch to the stomach with his other hand and finally a snap kick to the ninja's jaw. His opponent's head snapped back and the rest of him followed.

Leo spun, starting low and coming up high, with both blades lashing out. One of them caught the foot ninja's hilt the other his wrist. Leo heard the barely there gasp as cut through muscles and tendons but didn't bother acknowledging the foot ninja's injury as he pressed his advantage sweeping his feet out from under him. The ninja fell back and off to one side, his head catching the side of the same air vent that his counterpart had tried to use as cover to ambush Raph.

With no immediate threats around him he turned to check on his brother. Several ninjas laid at his feet and as Leo watched Raph drilled his finally opponent in the stomach with the pommel of his sai doubling him over with a loud grunt and fully exposing his back to Raphael. A sharp elbow to the middle of his shoulder blades was all it took to put him out if the fight.

Raph looked over to check on him but they barely made eye contact before they were off again, running to where their brothers were. If they had been ambushed then they had to have been too. It was why Mikey had screamed, to let them know they were in trouble. He let his arms relax to his side and fall back behind him slightly so he could lower his center of gravity and move faster. He was confident in his brothers' skills as fighters but he still wanted to see that they were alright with his own eyes.

He nearly barreled into another set of ninjas as they flipped up over the edge of the building from where they had been hiding on a fire escape and under the eave. A few surprised grunts and a rough shove backwards had him falling back into Raph who had stopped behind him. His brother caught him easy enough and pulled him backwards as a Foot ninja tried to take advantage of his compromised balance.

Raph let him go and they stepped apart as the eight ninjas before them readied their own weapons. Raphael spun both his said and Leo snapped the hilt of his right sword around and over the back of his wrist. He caught it decisively as he lowered his stance and centered himself as a frown formed on his face. Raph was growling angrily which meant the feeling was mutual. These men were keeping them from their brothers and they needed to learn the hard and painful way why it was such a bad idea for them to keep them from their brothers.

Raph roared and Leo charged forward with him, meeting him stride for stride.

-Break-

Michelangelo needed to talk more to Don and develop a theory he had been working on over the past few months. It seemed -regardless of the circumstances- that if they were having a good time and a peaceful moment that something bad was about to happen. This night was a good example, they had just gone out for a bit of a jog, just to move around and get some fresh air, and all shell had to break loose.

Actually knowing Don he already had graphs, charts and a lecture set aside for this phenomenon. Mikey was going to call it 'turtles' cosmic bad luck' just to make it easier to remember because Don probably had this massive Latin sounding name for it that sounded like a cross between gibberish and Vulcan.

Why couldn't Don just simplify things for once without everyone asking/pleading with him too?

You'd think as a ninja he would have gotten over the whole scream-in-terror-something-just-surprised-you routine. He did live with a group of ninjas -which were his brothers so that just made it worse even if the prank battles were epic- so being caught unaware and having people pop out of the shadows was something he was kind of use too. He fought against ninjas. Even though lately the Foot clan grunts were really third strings when it came to ninjas, it still counted. It would make sense at some point he would outgrow the girly scream when it came to being surprised.

You'd think.

This had been the last thing he had been thinking about as he dashed across the rooftops trying to out race his brother. Don wasn't as fast as he was in a flat foot race but he could keep pace with him jumping about and hurdling obstacles. Luck was smiling on though. Up ahead was a clear rooftop free of the normal if necessary debris. There he could get ahead of Donnie and widen the gap enough to win.

They hit the roof at the same time, arms pumping and legs churning as they ran. Mikey had just turned up the juice and had started to pull ahead of Don when he stepped on something that was decidedly not nice firm roofing but something thin and plate like that shattered under foot. He screamed as he fell through the skylight, Don making a surprised noise in the back of his throat as he toppled in with him. The blanket or tarp or whatever it had been covering the skylight tangled and wrapped around them as they fell.

Then they hit something else which slowed their fall before it snapped and dumped the two of them on the floor. For a moment Mikey laid there panting, just trying to get his breath back before he started moving, trying to figure out which way was up and out of this mess. He winced and hissed as the broken glass pierced up through the blankets in places and stabbed at him as he moved about. He could heard his brother running into the same issue as he mumbled, "Shell, what the frag is all this about?"

"Construction?" Mikey said as he shoved at a few folds hopefully. He was disappointed when they just revealed more canvas like material. "A prank?"

"I was going more for trap."

Mikey froze for a moment as the deep baritone that was more assuredly not any of his brothers' voices came from the other side of their canvas prison. "Hun?!" he said and began moving faster in and attempt to find an exit. He had enough time keeping Hun busy on his own without anything hampering his movements. He did not want to figure out his chances unable to see him or move well because he was wrapped up in a never ending, canvas blanket prison even if he had the added bonus of a brother on his side.

"That's right," the blanket was suddenly pulled harshly from somewhere to the left of him and he toppled over onto his side. The blankets was still being pulled and Mikey found himself rolling over and over until his beak came into contact with something really hard. "Ow!" Mikey said as he clutched at his nose and prayed it wasn't broken.

"That did not sound good," his brother said. He may have still been wrapped up like a burrito in this mess but at least now he knew where Don was. He just wished he hadn't found him with his nose…

They were suddenly hoisted up into the air and neither turtle could prevent the brief flail that they did as they were hoisted upwards. From how Don's bo was digging into his side and leg, Mikey was able to tell that Don was laying on his stomach in the bottom of this bag wrap thing they were in and he was lay on his side on Don's shell. Definitely not a comfortable position for either of them to begin with regardless of the bad guy now carrying them who knew where. Don's shell wasn't exactly bendable which meant there was a lot of stress on his neck, shoulders and legs right now. The end of his bo kept digging into the side of Mikey's leg and Don's knee was alarmingly close to his now profusely bleeding nose.

He pushed both feet out as far as he could to try and take some of the pressure off Don's neck and shoulders while he turned his head so that it faced up and away from Don's knee. His nose wasn't broken yet as far as he could tell and he really wanted to keep it that way. Don shifted to, moving his shoulder up enough so that his bo went over Mikey's leg instead of trying to poke a hole through it.

Actually, in a rather disturbing way, it was kind of comfy in here… except for the whole steroid-bound-thug-who-wanted-them-dead hauling them off to who knows where part.

As if on cue, Hun punched him in the shell causing him to jump more in shock that actually pain and he was pretty sure he just kneed his brother in the side of the head. "Hey! Cut that out! What do I look like?! A pinata?!"

He could feel the facepalm his brother did almost at the same time he felt Hun smirk.

Oh… him and his big mouth.

Hun lifted the bag high and Mikey got two hits in the back, one in his side, and Don took one harsh hit to his lower stomach. Don managed to moan out a weak yet still angry sounding, "Mikey…"

"Yeah," he gasped as he tried to figure out if Hun had just burst his kidney. "I know… My bad…"

As if to make matters worse, Hun suddenly whipped the bag up, around, and down again, winding them up for shell knew what. Mikey was glad that he wasn't the only one screaming as what had to be the most disorienting rendition of a screwed up carnival ride he had ever had the horror of experiencing. Hun suddenly let them go and even though he had a moment to brace himself somewhat neither he nor Don -judging from the gasp his brother let out- were ready for the very sudden collision with something vertical, flat and very, very hard.

They fell to the floor together in a heap and, even though Mikey wanted to try to get out of whatever they were warped in, he first had to catch his breath. The sound of doors being slammed shut and the sound of a lock engaging was a bad sign. Feeling the floor shift and move as the engine in the vehicle they were in turned over and started up was an even worse sign. The truck was shifted into gear and pulled out, gradually picking up speed as it went down the street.

Don shifted next to him, groaning slightly and Mikey moaned too. "Hey Don," he said as he feeble pushed the blanket away from his face enough so he could breathe somewhat easier.

"Yeah," Don said in a flat tone.

"I got this theory-"

"Mikey, please no… Just no. My brain's already turned to mush by repeated hits to the head, there is no way I could possibly follow any train of illogical nonsense that you spit out right now."

"But-"

"Mikey, just help me get this thing off us."

Mikey sighed and began moving about more, shoving at the billowing never ending fabric. "Geez… where are the turtles with the blades when you need them?" he grouched.

"Hopefully chasing down the vehicle where in to take it over and get us out here."

"But?" Mikey knew that there was a catch in that by the tone of his voice.

"Most likely they're in the middle of a fight and haven't noticed our abduction yet."

Mikey paused in his quest of an exit and let his shoulders slump as he whined, "I hate being a self-rescuing princesses. There's so much work involved!"

"I know," Donatello said glumly as Mikey continued on with his quest. "Used to be we just got to sit around and wait while enjoying the un-hospitality of our abductors. Whatever hap- oh."

"Oh?" Mikey parroted. He would have continued but his hand finally found an opening. "Hey Don! I… oh."

They were sitting in the back of an armored truck. All the windows had been covered and sealed with what looked like welded plates. The two of them were sitting near the back of the truck, the canvas tarp that had been covering the skylight was pooled in their laps and the heavy net that they had crashed through afterwards was still draped over and under them. Mikey followed Don's line of sight to the large square knot that held the net closed and them trapped.

Experimentally, Mikey tugged at the netting to see if it had any give. It didn't. He sighed, "I'm going to ask to carry a katana around from now on -or even a tanto- anything that can cut through things because we always seem to lose the two with the blades when we need them –and more importantly their slashing weapons- the most."

Don finally stopped trying to slice through the ropes with his glare alone. He sighed, "And it was turning into such a nice, uneventful night too…"

Mikey waited a beat before saying, "So I got this theory-"

Despite their less than stellar predicament, it was insanely gratifying Don drop his head into his hands and groan.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own this franchise even if the memorabilia in my study makes it look like I do.

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Those Little Moments

Chapter Two

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He blocked the fist to one side with his forearm, throwing the other ninja off balance, before lashing out with his opposite hand. The pommel of his sai sunk deep into the ninjas side and even though it had not been a lethal hit, the strike had enough crack if not just break ribs and bruise the organs behind them. The ninja was down but Raphael kicked him in the side of the head as he turned to face his next opponent if just to try and make him feel better.

It was easy to see that these bozos were just there to distract them.

Since Mikey had screamed and the almost succeeded ambush on the two of them, he and Leo seemed to be facing a never ending wall of Foot Ninjas as they came pouring out of the shadows around them. That was just fine with Raph. It wasn't often he got a good workout in during a fight but it was not fine when he couldn't see what happened to two of his brothers. Mikey's scream could mean any number of things and when the Foot were involved none of them were good.

His next opponent came at him with a nunchaku brandished instead of a sword. It was nice to see something other than a standard katana but the sight of the weapon his younger brother preferred to use sent his blood boiling. He ducked the incoming weapon and caught the wrist that held it in between the baton and tsune of his own weapon. A quick twist snapped the ninja's wrist and he slammed his forearm into the leading elbow, causing it to bent unnaturally and break under the force of his strike. It was a brutal attack but his patience for this whole affair had long since been used up.

A growl built up in the back of his throat as he spun around, using his momentum to toss the unfortunate ninja away. He landed on the back of one of the two ninjas Leo was still fighting, knocking them down in an awkward heap and giving his older brother some breathing room to dance around to the other ninja's blind side and strike him in the side of his head with the flat of his blade. It wasn't designed to hurt as much startle and the ninja flinched back right into the path of the actual attack that was coming at him from the other side.

Raph didn't bother watching the incoming blow -the dull thump was all he needed to know that it had connected with the ninja's shoulder- but instead scanned the area around them for any more ninjas to come popping out of the shadows. He didn't see any and moved closer to his brother as the last ninja standing hit the ground in a pile of moaning black fabric with what he was guessing with broken shoulder and jaw. It seems Leo was fed up with playing the Foot's little game too.

Raph stepped on a ninja that was moving about more than he liked. He made sure to rest his full weight on a gash in his side for a moment to send the message to him loud and clear to stay down. He met his brother's eyes for only a brief second before they were off and moving, leaving behind twenty one ninjas in various levels of consciousness and sporting numerous injuries.

It took more time than he liked running around all the obstacles on the next roof over. The fact that the ninjas stopped swarming the two of them meant that they had either gone after their brothers or whatever they had been trying to delay them in had happened and they could pull back. Either way, the lump of apprehension in his stomach was refusing to uncoil and only seemed to be coiling faster with every passing moment.

It was just too quiet.

Mikey and Don weren't exactly silent when they were fighting. Mikey alone made enough noise as he bounced around the battlefield throwing taunts left and right to wake an entire neighborhood. Don didn't usually taunt his opponents but he still made off the wall observations during fights and the dull wack and thacks his bo made as his weapon found its marks could match Mikey's loudness word for word.

Leo had managed to pull ahead of him slightly and seeing him suddenly slow and crouch at the end of the roof had him braking too. He stayed low as he joined his brother at the edge of the roof. He took note of the dark look on his brother's face for a brief moment before turning his attention to the roof below them.

It was a story lower than the roof they were on with a maintenance hatch on the one side of it and a large skylight in the middle of it to break up its flatness. The skylight was broken through and in his mind's eye he could almost see what had happened. Caught up in their race, Mikey and Don would have run right over it trying to beat the other, but that wouldn't make sense. Mikey might have tried to run across glass just for kicks but not during a race that he challenged Don too and Don would have realized that one turtle would have busted through the glass. He was missing something else-

A small noise from his older brother caught his attention and he gave him a sidelong look. "There had to been something over the skylight to hide it from view," he said softly. Raph just narrowed his eyes in agreement. A tarp about the same color as the roof would have blended a flat skylight's shape in enough that his two distracted brothers wouldn't have noticed it.

Leo moved, slightly leaping over the alley separating them from the scene and moving along the roof towards the skylight slowly and cautiously. Raph followed barely three steps behind, mimicking his half crouched stance but whereas Leo was focused on the skylight, Raph watched the rooftops around them, just in case any other Foot ninjas decided to uninvitedly stop by.

Leo crept right up to the edge and peered into the darkness below. It was still too quiet for Raph's liking and he nearly broke ranks to just jump down into the building and look for his little brothers but he held himself in check as he glared at the rooftops around them just daring someone to show their face. Leo had his faults but he was probably the most observant of them. If there was a trap waiting for them, he would see it.

After a long agonizing moment of wanting someone to show up just so he could hit them, Raph felt his brother gently tap his shoulder, telling him nonverbally that the coast was clear. He waited a beat after Leo jumped down through the skylight before turning his back on the New York skyline and following him.

The warehouse was dark and quiet as he followed his brother down onto the rafts and the topmost crates that were sitting on large industrial shelving. The warehouse was small but the shelves were set up to make the most of the vertical space, with shelf on shelf filled with crates of various sizes but with not an inch of free shelving remained anywhere to be seen. The middle of the warehouse was a long aisle that went from one large door to another so that a truck could drive in one side and then go right out the other without needing any extra space to turn around in.

The aisle was all but right below the skylight and with the faint light streaming in it was easy to see the glint of broken glass even from their perch. Raph growled to himself and spun his sais as the need to do something filled him. It was obvious that Mikey and Don were taken somewhere after they went through the skylight. The only question that he was concerned with at the moment was where they were taken and who did it.

He followed Leo as the oldest started down the shelving towards the ground. The warehouse was silent and as far as Raph could tell empty. It still didn't make his feel any better though. The Foot were notorious for ambushes and right now he all but knew that there was going to be another one at this rate.

Leo was examining the area of the aisle where the broken glass was. He was taking his time going over it both so he wouldn't miss something and so he wouldn't cut his feet up on the glass that were little more than small blades. Despite his cautious and methodical approach Raph couldn't tell what his brother was looking for. A moment later he couldn't help but hiss at him, "Leo, what are you doing?"

His brother ignored his for a moment longer but spoke up before Raph could really get mad at him. "They were tangled up in something." He touched a part of the floor that must have somehow been different in his eyes even though Raph couldn't tell what was different. "Something was hampering their movements." He frowned as he looked at the ground a few feet from him and tilted his head to one side. "They were dragged a few feet and then something lifted them off the ground."

Something picked them up? Don was the lightest out of the four of them and despite all his baby fat Mikey was pretty light too but the two of them combined would be a lot of weight to hoist up. To lift the two of them a mechanical device was involved or- "Hun."

There was a slight shift in Leonardo's stance that was almost unnoticeable but Raph saw it right away. He had had too many arguments with his brother not to notice when Leo was royally pissed off but not showing it with the mother of all poker faces. "Come on," his brother said in a clipped voice that also spoke volumes of his internal anger. He was looking at the door were presumably they had been taken. "We're going after them."

Finally some action, Raph twirled his sais eager for something to do. There was only one really big flaw with Leo's 'let go after them' plan. "How are we going to find them?"

Leo stood up, putting away his one sword as he did so and then digging around in his belt for a moment before pulling out his shell cell. "Hopefully one of them will answer," he said as he dialed it and placed it to his ear.

"And if that doesn't work?" They could both be out cold for all they knew and the thought of Hun having his two brothers at his mercy gave Raph just another reason to beat the tar out of him when he saw him again.

"We go ask the Dragons where they are," Leo heavily emphasized the word 'ask' and Raph couldn't help but grin with anticipation.

"Works for me."

-Break-

"Donatello you are the smartest of my older brothers. You have out thought everything this side of the Hudson. Your IQ is larger than the population of Manhattan. You have built and given life to numerous creations that make our life easier every day and in some case will fuel my nightmares for years to come. You-"

"Mikey," Don said with a small huff of annoyance as he continued to focus on the task at hand. After almost four minutes of Mikey just praising him it was easy to guess that his little brother wanted something. "What do you want?"

"You really want to know? I want you to stop trying to light the net we're still trapped in on fire!" Mikey's voice rose in volume as he spoke and towards the end his hands flapped around as if he were a bird. The net bucked about at the erratic motion, bouncing off their heads and shoulders and nearly pulling the piece of net Don was working on free from his hand.

Don gave him an annoyed look before turning back to his project. He moved the lighter in his hand back and forth gently, trying to melt through enough of the nylon to weaken the rope so that they could break free. "For the tenth time Mikey, I'm not lighting the rope on fire-"

"It looks like your trying to light it on fire to me!"

"-I'm merely melting through the nylon enough to weaken the rope so we can rip it open and escape."

Mikey gave Don the same worried look he had since he had started trying to break them free. "You keep saying that and all I can think of is that when Hun opens the door again he's going to find a couple of flombayde turtles back here."

"I keep asking you if you have a better idea and you keep coming up with what we should have brought from the lair and not something that we actually use to expedite this escape."

Don was starting to use larger than normal words in polite conversation out of frustration which he knew would tell Mikey that he was getting annoyed with his antics. They were in serious trouble and Don did not want to know what Hun was planning on doing with them when they got to where ever they were going. That meant that they had to escape sooner rather than later and with only the minimal supplies they usually carried with them.

Unfortunately, neither of them where carrying anything of real use for various reasons. Their shell cells were dead, the thick walls of the armored truck interfering with their reception making it impossible to receive or send out anything. Both had grappler lines, suko spikes and gas pellets which really weren't of any use in this situation. Don had a small medical kit, a small crescent wrench, the lighter, a small amount of plastic explosives he was planning on using on the door and his smallest Leatherman which was small enough to fit in his belt but did not come with a blade. Don made a note to figure out how to get his larger one to fit in his belt so that he could have a knife or to start toting around a swiss army knife in addition to everything else.

Mikey on the other hand was also carrying his ipod in case there was a stakeout and he had to sit alone for hours. He had a yoyo on him because he still felt the need to see if he could 'walk the dog' on the top of Raph's head without him knowing it. Don was stunned speechless for a moment before he called him a suicidal idiot and they moved on. Michelangelo also had a bag of skittles and a protein bar in his belt just in case he got hungry.

The real embarrassment that they now shared after going through their inventories was that neither of them were carrying any shurikens. Donatello didn't relish the idea of using throwing stars to cut their way free simply because there was no way to hold one to try and cut with it. They would end up tearing both their hands all to shell trying to get free. Still, as Mikey pointed out, how could they really call themselves ninjas without a staple to the ninja image?

Don chose to ignore him then and started trying to burn their way free. Mikey responded by his worried fidgeting and theatrics that were really beginning to grate on Don's nerves. In the back of his mind he knew it was just Mikey trying to hide his anxiety over what was going to happen. Knowing Hun, whatever he had plan was not going to be pleasant.

"Hey Donnie?" his little brother said timidly after a few moments of blissful silence. Don hummed in the back of his throat for him to continue even though he had a feeling he was going to regret it. "Since you really haven't made any progress can you stop trying to light us on fire?"

As a pacifist Donatello was not really known for his temper. He had mounds of patience after hours of working on tedious projects back in the lair. He was not prone to violent outburst or threats. He was the gentlest of his brothers, the most forgiving and the most sensible but even he had his breaking point and when that came his temper was worse than that of even Raphael's.

"Oh for the love of shell!" he snapped, throwing his arms down into his lap and looking up at the ceiling above them as if that had a reason he shouldn't strangle his brother. "Mikey, you're my only little brother so I understand the need to drive me crazy but right now can you not be so annoying?! Seriously," he threw his arms out wide as if he signaling that he was ready to catch something. "Unless you have some piece of valuable information that could prevent further injury or somehow get us out of this mess just shut up and let me work!"

Mikey blinked once and then twice at him in startled silence before opening his mouth to say something while raising a finger. Don quickly cut it off, "No, Mikey! I'm not in the mood for any more games so this better be pertinent to alleviating ourselves from this current situation or I swear the repercussions you face will be unlike anything Raph and Leo have ever come up with to date."

The finger sank back down and Mikey closed his mouth, now giving him an annoyed frown. "Told you so," he said cryptically while he crossed his arms and looked pointedly down at their side.

Following his gaze in confusion Don blinked at the small fire now rapidly spreading across the canvas tarp that they had gotten tangled up in initially. Apparently the fabric was highly flammable judging by how quickly the fire was spreading. It must've caught when he was gesticulating wildly at his younger brother. He must've still been pressing down on the lighter's lever.

"Oops," he said as he tucked the lighter away sheepishly as the flames seemed to leap a bit higher as if to mock him. He began to shy away from them, not that he really had any options of getting away.

"Good going Einstein," his younger brother huffed as he began scooting as far away from the fire as the confines of the net let him. "I sure hope that Hun likes turtle souffle."


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own this franchise even if the memorabilia in my study makes it look like I do.

Author's Note: I have never been on the George Washington Bridge and the pictures I'm finding online really aren't doing it much justice nor are they giving me an idea of how the bridge is actually laid out so don't mind the lack of realism and just roll with the description I've cobbled together. Also, I have nothing against New Jersey but Mikey always seems to have at least one crack about the state in pretty much every medium so please take it with a grain of salt.

* * *

Those Little Moments

Chapter Three

* * *

There was only one thing that Raph liked about this situation and that was the sheer amount of beat downs he was handing out and would keep handing out through the night.

He easily hip threw the purple dragon charging him, adding a little flourish to the end of the throw that sent the gang member end over end and into several trash cans behind him. He sidestepped another charging gangster and kicked him in the tail, sending him into the toppled trashcans with his counterpart. Really this was just laughably easy.

He tripped the third member into the groaning pile of trash cans before turning to look at the shadows that cloaked the end of the alley. He could hear the whimpering of the fourth gang member in this little posse and the hushed whispering of his older brother. Mikey said that Leo's impersonation of Batman was absolutely terrifying if a bit cool to watch and listen to. Raph really didn't care what it was called as long as it got them the answers they needed.

It only took another moment for Leo to finish his hushed interactions with the gang member before he came out of the shadows dragging his informant by the collar. Not that the Dragon seemed to really care about that. He was curled up in a little ball with tear tracks on his face that he was hastily scrubbing at, sniffling at himself. Leo tossed him into the pile of dragons before turning for the fire escape with a grim look on his face.

Raph frowned and followed him up the escape silently. The look on his brother's face never meant a good thing nor did his silence as he walked across the roof to perch on the ledge on the far side to glare off at the city's skyline. It was the same look he had when there were just a series of no service messages to their brothers' cell phones when they tried to call them earlier. Raph followed along silently, biting his tongue as he let his older brother think for a bit. After another thirty seconds of silence -a new record for him- he spoke up as he crossed his arms. "Well?"

Leo tipped his head, acknowledging that he had heard him, but remained silent for a few moments longer before talking. "That Dragon knew nothing about Mikey and Don's kidnapping."

There was obviously more to it but Leo had fallen silent again. "And," Raph huffed, letting some of his impatience's slip out. "What's that got to do with finding Mikey and Don?"

"The only other time the Dragons tried to kidnapped two of us on purpose, the entire gang knew what was going on." Raph could all but feel the glare that Leo sent the skyline as he tried to piece the puzzle together in his head. "This was more of a spontaneous thing. There was no long term planning or preparation for this."

With what little patience he had already long since exhausted, Raph threw his arms out wide and snapped, "And what does that have to do with finding Mikey and Don?!"

"Possibly everything," Leo answered, ignoring the outburst. "Why would they take them if that wasn't the plan?"

Disgusted, Raph gave Leo a single wave of his hand in disgust as he turned away, "You sit there and figure that out. I'm going to go find someone who knows what happened."

"Raph," he heard Leo come after him as more of a wisp of movement than any actual sound. "Wait a second-"

"I'm done waiting Leo," Raph growled as he put one foot on the ledge around the edge of the roof. "We can figure out the why later, right now we have to find them."

"And how do you propose we do that?" Leo said somewhat airily as he came up to stand next to him. "Run around the city and taking down any dragon we see until they tell us where they are?"

Raph gave him an angry look for sounding so nonchalant. "In case you hadn't noticed, Leo, Mikey and Don have been missing for almost an half an hour now. I don't know about you but I'd rather find them sooner rather than later, especially if that involves doing nothing but sitting around and watching you glare off at nothing all night!"

"Raph-" Leo tried to cut in with a frown only to stop when Raph wheeled about on him and purposefully pushed into his personal bubble.

"I don't care if I have to lay the smack down on every Dragon member this side of the Hudson. One of them is going to know where they are. Or in the very least where I can find Hun and get the answer from him!"

He turned back to the edge of the roof intent to start his hunt when Leo grabbed his shoulder, "Raph wait-,"

He slapped his brother's hand off his shoulder and got right back in his face. "Don't push it Leo," he growled at him.

"I am going to 'push it'," Leo snarled right back at him, not standing placidly like he had before but standing up to him. "Because all you're going to be doing is wasting time. Did you think I wouldn't ask where Hun is? Roddy," pointing angrily back at the edge of the roof they had come from, obviously indicating the gang member he had spoken to earlier. "Didn't know about this. All he knew was it was some special assignment for Shredder and not to bother him tonight. So your rampage is going to be a complete waste of time. Time better spent looking for them and not beating the face off half the hoods gangs all night!"

That made some sense. Roddy was fairly high up in the gang's chain of command and was usually in on any large scale operations within the gang. Not so much if the Foot was involved but if this had been a planned kidnapping he would have at least heard something. "Alright," he said deflating slightly and taking a step back. It was as much of an apology as he was going to give. He still wanted to do something besides just standing around. "What's the plan?"

Leo settled back a bit too and the calm reasoning tone of his voice returned to normal. "This was obviously a distraction. There is something about the area that warehouse is in that the Foot and Hun wanted to distract us from. The more I think about the trap the more it seems to be nothing more than a hastily cobbled together trick with the limited supplies and resources at their disposal. They were relying more on our distraction rather than taking into account our strengths and weaknesses.

"A fall from that height would have dazed them but it wasn't enough to seriously hurt them. There was no sign of a fight inside that warehouse so Mikey and Don were pretty much just tossed into the back of a truck that took off. It only took us four minutes tops for us to get through our ambush and there was no sign of a truck near it when we got to the warehouse. For it to get that much of a head start so that we wouldn't see it, the truck would have needed at least three minutes. More because neither of us heard it drive off or the garage door on the warehouse closing."

"So Hun basically picked them up off the ground and tossed them in the back of truck and it took off," Raph added, starting to see where Leo had already connected the dots.

"Exactly," Leo said with determination. "Hun's still in that area and I think it's high time we go back and have a little chat with him."

-Break-

"Have I ever told you how much of a bonehead you are?" Mikey said in a strained voice as the smoke that was slowly thickening in the back of the truck started to become more and more of an irritant.

"Eight times in the past four and a half minutes," His voice was equally becoming strained and his eyes were beginning to water. He had been right about the lack of air holes in the back of the truck. The fact that the smoke was just filling the room instead of escaping proved that.

"Well you're the biggest bonehead of all the boneheads," Mikey said pausing to cough into his hand once before continuing. "There said it ten times in five minutes just to keep it nice and even."

"Thanks," Don said not really paying attention to his brother at all as he shifted his bo slightly in his grip. With lack of any other options, Don had decided to sacrifice his bo and quickly bundled up the flaming tarp using the one end before shoving the fire as far away from Mikey and himself as he could. While the tarp was fairly large it was apparent that the net was not. Donatello estimated that it topped out at maybe twelve by twelve feet max meaning that the two of them were sitting less than six feet away from a thirty by thirty foot tarp that had raged up into a rather frightening conflagration to be sitting so close too.

It was getting rather hot and smoky quick in the back of the truck.

Still, there was a chance that the small net and hot fire could be their ticket to freedom as long as it didn't suffocate them. They were leaning their combined weight back against the net while he shoved the tarp into the opposite side of the net. The heat from the fire would do the same thing he was trying to do with the lighter but on a much large scale. The tension on the net would snap it open when it finally burned through the ropes freeing them.

Hopefully this would all happen before they suffocated or enough of his bo burned down that he couldn't keep up enough tension without seriously burning himself.

"Now I know what it feels like to food when I shove dinner in the oven," Mikey mumbled under his breath, finishing his sentence just as the net finally snapped open.

Both of them rolled backwards, Don released the charred remains of the bo before he rolled. Coming back up onto their feet they made a beeline for the doors to escape the heat and hopefully find some fresher air. "Hurry up, Donnie," Mikey wheezed and hacked into his hand. "It may be a bit cooler over here but I don't like how smoky it still is."

"Neither do I," Don agreed even as he focused his watery eyes on setting up the plastic explosives. It was probably the fastest he had ever rigging them before. "Clear," he coughed out as he set the small detonator the was wired to the small hunk of gray putty that was stuck to the center seam of the two doors about where the lock on the outside would be. He wasn't sure if Mikey heard him but when he moved away from the doors so did his brother. He took about two steps and hunched down with his shell pointing towards the doors and covered his ears as a precaution.

There was a sudden loud pop and the sound of metal snapping and Don knew that the door was open as fresh air raced into the smoky place. The extra air fanned the fire and Don turned away from it as it leapt higher against the back wall. "Doors?" he heard Mikey as they turned in unison.

"Doors," Don agreed and the two of them took two running steps and jumped up into the doors. Their sudden weight slamming against them threw them opened and Don scrambled to grab the edge and part of the now damaged bolting system that had held the door closed. The doors swung out and he lost sight of Mikey as his door came into the truck's slipstream. He only had to be buffeted by the wind generated by a truck going sixty five for a moment before his door swung back behind the truck and wobbled back and forth thanks to his weight and the wind the truck was generating as it moved.

"Oh no!" Don had just been about to determine where they were when Mikey derailed that train of thought with his horrified -if slightly raspy- cry. "Don, it's horrible!"

"What?" his brother didn't appear hurt but maybe he had somehow cut himself on the door or-

"We're going to cross into Jersey!" He wailed looked absolutely scandalized at the very notion.

Don could only find it in himself to sigh and hang his head.

The moment was broken when the truck suddenly braked and swerved hard first to one side of the lane and then to the other. "I think they've realized we broke out!" Mikey shouted as they both got better grips on their respective doors that were swing back and forth wildly in conjunction with the swerving truck.

"What gave you that idea?!" Don yelled back as he glanced around quickly. They were indeed traveling on the Washington Bridge which was pretty empty this late at night but also meant they had to do something fast before the hit the toll booths. There were cameras on those and he had no desire to race back to the lair and hack the State of New York and the New York Police systems to delete video evidence.

Again.

Quickly as he could without losing his grip, Don twisted himself around so that all his weight was hanging on the inside latching system of the door only. "Mikey," He yelled as they swung closure to each other again. He set one foot against the door and the other foot was put on this knee allowing his upper thigh to set almost level with the ground. "Up!"

"It was an awesome movie!" Mikey yelled even as he brought his feet up to rest on the edge of the door. As he swung closer Mikey jumped from his door onto Don, grabbing his forearms to help balance him as both feet landed on Don's offered leg. Don grunted with the added weight but gritted his teeth and bore it as the door swung with the force of Mikey's landing and banged off the side of the truck.

The rattling hit was Mikey's cue, jumping forward off his brother and onto the top of the truck. He didn't waste any time, staying low as he rushed forward so he wouldn't get blown off the truck or lose his balance. He wobbled back and forth with the movements of the truck before slipping down onto the cab. Making sure he had a tight grip on the lights built into the top of the truck he leaned over the edge and looked into the driver's side window.

"Squirrel!" He yelled at the two dragons sitting in the cab only because it seemed fitting after mentioning the movie. His sudden appearance and yell startled both the dragons. The pause was all he needed to reach through the window, grab the wheel and yank it hard to one side.

As soon as Mikey had vanished up onto the roof of the truck Don relaxed his legs and hissed as the muscles all up and down his arms bitterly complained at holding up both him and Mikey. He could feel the muscle fatigue begin to set in as he readjusted his grip and turned himself around. He needed to work on his pullups more.

The sudden hard jerk in the truck's body followed by the squealing of tires warned him of the truck's predicament. He experienced a brief moment of an almost weightless feeling as the truck slammed down on the side opposite of him and his door slammed on the side -now top- of the truck as it skidded down the road. The sudden impact jarred his grip loose and knocked most of the wind out of him.

Mikey hadn't stuck around. As soon as he pulled the steering wheel hard and fast enough to the side to topple the truck onto its side without completely flipping it he was pulling himself back up and onto the truck's cab. He had to do a strange -even for him- pulling hop up thing as the truck choose that moment to land onto its side but he made it onto the new top of the truck just in time to see Don get slammed stomach first onto his door as it came crashing down.

He winced even as he moved towards his brother. The truck was starting to go sideways across the lanes and was drastically losing speed. He made it to Don as his brother managed to wobble up onto his hands and knees and quickly scooped him up as he rushed past. Since the truck had started going sideways it meant that they were only a big leap to the edge of the road and the walking path that ran alongside the highway. It was big and Don wasn't going to be able to help propel them forward much but Mikey leapt anyways, trusting in the power of his own awesomeness to get them safely across.

His jump was enough that he managed to hook one of the braces with one arm and swing the two of them safely over the fence and onto the walking path. Their landing was a bit stumbled but the two of them managed to find their feet and Mikey stood up as Don took a minute with both hands on his knees as he worked on catching his breath. "So Donnie," Mikey said as he watched one dragon flop down onto the pavement from the now stopped truck a few hundred yards further down the road. The other had managed to pull himself up through the door enough that he was laying across the wheel well and seemed too decided that was a good place to take a break. "How does it feel to be a self-rescuing princess?"

"Good," Don said as he stood, his breathing still somewhat off but gradually returning to normal as he caught his breath. "A little more work than I was expecting but still pretty good."

"Ditto on that," Mikey said as they both turned away from the toppled truck. "I'm going to be expecting quite a bonus in my paycheck for some of those stunts."

"I'm thinking of hiring a stunt double with my bonus," Don said as they fell into familiar bantering as they started jogging back towards New York. "Come on. Let's go find our dashing and heroic brothers that failed in the whole rescuing department for the evening."

"Yeah, lazy slackers missed out on all the fun."

Without evening looking at each other the two brothers gave each other a high three as they headed back into the city.

-Break-

Now that they had an area to look in, it was almost laughably easy to find Hun.

They had barely spent anytime searching the area around the warehouse when they found him, standing in an alley at the rear of a van with the back doors wide open, watching whatever was happening on the inside with his arms crossed and a deep frown. It looked like a delivery van complete with a logo for a local courier group, the perfect disguise to drive about the Upper East Side with and not arouse suspicion.

Raph hung back in the shadows near the top of the fire escape waiting as patiently as he could for Leo to finish doing another sweep of the area and get into position. After finding Hun, the two of them had checked the surrounding area for anymore ambushes or traps as quickly and thoroughly as they dared without wasting too much time. Yes, they wanted to find their brothers but they wouldn't be any good to Mikey and Donnie if they were caught too.

Still, he couldn't help but shake the feeling that something bad was about to happen even if their search hadn't turned up anything.

A faint gleam of steel from the roof opposite of his caught his attention and he moved out of the shadows slowly to look over the rail of the fire escape to check his landing spot. Leo was moving too, walking forward about ten paces so that he could land on top of the van. The only place they couldn't check was the alley itself but with almost nothing but the van, dumpster, a pile of garbage and a few trash cans clustered together there wasn't anything to hide in or behind. Unless the Foot came piling out of the van like it was a clown car now that would be funny.

He had been counting to ten in his head and as he reached first double digit, Raph swung himself up and over the railing of the fire escape, drawing his sais as he fell. He hit the closed dumpster lid with a loud thud that was echoed by Leo's own landing. Hun barely had time to look in his direction before he was looking back at Leo, taking a step back when he saw how close Leo's swords were to his face. "Where are they?" Leo demanded.

"Yeah, tell us and we won't beat the shell out of you too badly," Raph added from his perch as he twirled his sais ready for the coming fight.

"I don't have time for this," Hun looked more annoyed than intimidated by them. He unfolded his arms and calmly put a hand over his mouth and nose. Leo paused as he noticed that Hun was actually holding a small mask of some sort to his face at the same time that he realized it was a trap.

"Raph!" He yelled as he jumped backwards, trying to warn his brother but it was already too late. Seconds after Hun had covered his face an odd greenish-blue cloud had erupted from under the van, dumpster and the trash cans, filling the alley they were in within a few seconds. Leo began coughing and tried to hold his breath but the warning to his brother had forced him to take a big gulp of the gas and he could already feel its affects.

His swords slipped from nerveless fingers to clutter on top of and over the edge of the van. He heard and echoing clutter as Raph lost the grip on his weapons too. Leo felt himself tip to the side and flop gracelessly onto the roof of the van only to slip off and land shell first on the pavement. His eyes were falling shut as he heard the thump of someone else falling over and knew it was Raph.

The last thing he heard was Hun saying with a voice muffled with his gas mask, "Baxter was right, that stuff did knock them out quick. Get them out of here!"

And then someone grabbed him but he couldn't care about it anymore as he slipped into a dreamless sleep.

-Break-

Donatello pulled the shell cell away from his ear with a frown. Neither Leo or Raph were answering his calls, both phones ringing through to voicemail ominously. After they had gotten off the high visibility of the bridge, they reached for their shell cells knowing their brothers would want to hear from them. Both phones showed various missed calls from the brothers but now they weren't answering either of them.

"Dude, this isn't good." Mikey said from where he was standing next to him having lowered his own phone. "Leo always answers on the third ring."

That was true, no matter what time of day -and one time in the shower- Leo always answered his phone by the third ring. "Don't worry, Mikey," Don reassured him as he entered his phones menu and activated the locator program he had built into it. "We'll find him." He didn't bother saying as long as they still had their shell cells on them.

"Well at least this explains why they didn't save us." Mikey said as he followed along behind his brother who was starting off across the rooftop they were on, looking down at his phone. "They were too busy being caught themselves."

Despite the situation, Don couldn't help but grin and say, "Come on Mikey. A princess' job is never done."


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own this franchise even if the memorabilia in my study makes it look like I do.

Author's Note: I know nothing about cyber security other than I pay a monthly fee for my home computer's protection and that every time there is a security update at work the email server goes down. Please bare that in mind as you read the last part of the chapter, it sound feasible and works for the story so there you have it.

* * *

Those Little Moments

Chapter Four

* * *

They were almost through upper Manhattan when their brothers' phones went dead.

Donatello slid to a stop on the roof he had been crossing and began fiddling with his phone, ensuring that the disconnect was not at his end. At first, Michelangelo hadn't realized he had stopped and ran past him only to pull up short from the jump to the next roof when he realized that his brother had stop. He turned and jogged back over to him, "Yo Don, why'd you stop?"

"Leo and Raph's shell cells just went dead," Don said as he restarted the locater program with the vain hope that it would pick them up again. "Somewhere over on the far side of Harlem."

Mikey wilted where he stood. "Seriously Don, let's call in some backup or at least get someone to bring us the Battleshell. My tootsies are aching."

"It's almost two in the morning Mikey," Don said as he tucked the now useless phone away. He could only hope that there was a lead to their brothers whereabouts when they reached the spot their cells went dead at. "April has to be up at six to get to work on time. Leatherhead's nightmares have been horrible lately and I would rather he rest if he could and Master Splinter can't drive the Battleshell to save his life."

That being said Don started across the rooftop again, gaining speed to make the jump to the next roof. "What about Casey?!" Mikey called after his brother as he hurried to catch up.

"You call and wake him up!" his brother yelled back over his shoulder.

Mikey thought about that for a moment before grumbling to himself. "Seriously unfair dude."

About the only person with a temper worse than Raph when being woken up early was Casey. And last time he woke him Casey threatened to deshell him. Mikey honestly didn't want to know if that was possible or if Casey would go through with his threat.

He liked his shell right where it was.

-Break-

Leonardo woke with a splitting headache and a raging thirst.

He groaned and shifted slightly only to realize that he was crumbled face first into a corner with all of his weight resting on his shoulders. It was like he was haphazardly thrown in the corner and left where he laid. Since the Dragons had him that made all the sense in the world.

He finally managed to figure out which way was up and slowly rolled himself to one side. Now that he was sitting more against a wall and his hands were free he rubbed at his face. It was numb and his tongue felt swollen. "Raph?" he managed to croak before coughing drily. "Can you hear me?"

"Ugh… freaking shellheads…"

Raph's voice didn't sound much better than his but at least they were still together. "You okay?" Leo asked as he blinked. This wasn't good. He knew his eyes were open but he couldn't see a thing.

"Peachy. Where the frag are we?"

"Not sure," Leo reached into his belt and pulled out his shell cell. Honestly he was surprised that he was still had it. The Dragons knew they carried cell phones so why hadn't they taken them? "Let's see," he opened the phone, bathing the area with the bright LED light coming off the screen, casting eerie shadows about the walls.

Raph was across from him still laying on his stomach on the floor and looking both sick and miserable. He gave him a halfhearted glare as he swung the light over him, checking for injuries. "Eh… bright," he grumbled but took the abuse with no other complaints.

After he made sure that Raph was alright and just suffering the same post drugging illness that he was facing, Leo turned the phone back to him, wincing in the bright light but unsurprised that there was no signal. "Can't call for help," he reported as he turned the phone around and swept the room.

"Hey, are weapons are in here too," Raph said as he picked up one of his sais. His other sai and Leo's swords were lying on the ground nearby as if they had been thrown in with them. "That's never a good sign."

"No it's not," Leo agreed as he frowned at what he was seeing. They were in an oddly familiar small room but one he was sure he had never seen before. It was fairly small, maybe only eight by five feet max. As Raph stood up he had to hunch forward to avoid hitting his head so the ceiling height was not much, probably less than five feet.

"Are we in the back of a cargo van?" Raph asked in disbelief and it was only then that Leo's mind finally clicked at why their surroundings were both unfamiliar and not.

"Looks like it," he agreed as he swung his phone towards the far end to reveal the back double doors leading outside. "In fact I would say yes." The motor obviously wasn't running so that meant they were wherever the Dragons wanted them to be.

Raph had already stalked over to the doors and tried to force them open with no luck. Leo took a moment to pick up his swords and tuck them back into their sheaths as his brother shoved and jerked the door handles before finally giving up and punching one of them. "They left us with our weapons Raph, I highly doubt that we would be lucky enough for the doors to be unlocked too," he pointed out.

Raph took a sai from his belt and twirled it about his fingers for a moment. "They shoulda," he said as he caught it and stabbed forward with the tsuba. There was a loud crunch of metal as it pierced through the door seam. "I wouldn't have given them such a beat down when we get out of here," he continued as snapped the sai from one side to the other. Bending the metal away from the door seam and utterly destroying the lock and latch assembly that was inside the door.

He tucked his weapon away and pushed at the door, expecting it to open and frowning when it didn't. He shoved with both hands and still it didn't move. "Yo, give me a hand with this," he said over his shoulder to his older brother.

Leo looked up from where he was trying to see if there was enough of a signal to get even a text message out. He was worried about Mikey and Don and there was something about this trapped that seemed too easy. Raph's sudden request for help only made the slight unease at their situation spike even more.

Together they each took a separate door and shoved but they didn't move. "Together?" Leo suggested as he shifted over enough so that they could both put their shoulders into the same door. While the door did shift slightly it wasn't easy. "There is definitely something holding the doors closed," Leo said as he looked the door over again wishing there was a window so he could see what they were up against. "The walls might not be too thick. If I can stab a sword through one we might be able to cut a door in it."

"I don't think that's a good idea Leo." He turned back to where his brother was standing, some kind of gray goop was dripping from his hand and from around the part of the door he had damaged. The goop was oozing through the damaged latch slowly like a sluggishness bleeding injury.

"It's cement."

-Break-

Donatello stayed low on the roof as he double checked the program running on his phone. Yup. It looked like both Raph and Leo had been at about the center of the construction site when their phones lost connection. This just reeked of a trap.

"This stereotype is so overused," Mikey lamented next to him. "I mean seriously, dark and spooky construction site? It's like the Foot and the Dragons have lost the flair for trap laying. It's like they're barely even trying anymore."

Don ignored him and double checked the information on his phone again. "I can only roughly guess the area that their shell cells went down to about thirty square feet." He tucked his phone away. "After that we're on our own."

"Joy," Mikey grumbled as his brother looked over the scene for what seemed like the millionth time. Bored, Mikey's eyes wandered about the rooftop and then down to the street below them. Something on the curb caught his eye and he let out a little 'huh' before going to investigate.

After completing another sweep of the area Don shifted slightly where he still knelt. This did smell like a trap but if they were going to be ambushed he wasn't sure where it would come from. There was a lot of open areas, few place for even one Foot ninja to hide let alone two. The building was still in the process of being framed out and most of the area around it was cleared, only a few low piles of materials, several large pieces of machinery and a single heavy duty tool box that was about the size of a twin bed. Even the fencing was chain linked and since they were several stories higher Don was confident that there wasn't an ambush set to spring.

What were the Foot and Dragons getting at?

Mikey came back and something lightly tapped his arm. "Here dude," Mikey said as he turned to face him. "I brought you a present."

It was a straight piece of steel tube about half an inch in diameter but about six feet long. "Where did you find this?" Don asked as he took it, slipping back away from the edge of the building so he wouldn't be seen as he stood up. He tested its weight and spun it a few times as Mikey spoke up.

"It was down next to the curb. Must've fallen off a truck or something and no one noticed it sitting in the shadow of the ledge. I wouldn't have seen it if the street light hadn't been hitting it right."

It was a little heavier than he was use too and maybe a closer to seven feet than he originally thought it was but it would do for now. "Thanks Mikey," he said as he tucked it away and moved back up to the edge of the building alongside his brother. "Keep your eyes peeled," he said as he looked over the area below them one last time. "Be ready for anything."

"No worries there. Even if Hun shows up in a tutu and starts the Macarena my camera phone is already ready for all the blackmail pics I'm going to be taking."

-Break-

Leo was going to end up dulling the shell out of his blade but he'd rather snap both his swords as long as it got them out of here.

Raph's discovery of the cement leaking through the door was all he needed to put the strange pieces of this trap together. They had been thrown into the back of a cargo van which had then been buried in cement, probably after the van had been driven into a hole. That would help to explain their odd half thrown half/half collapsed positions when they had woken up.

"Ready?" Leo asked only waiting for the small nod from his brother before counting down. "One. Two. Three!" Together they thrusted the sword up, their hands overlapping on the hilt. There was a resounding clang as the sword's point slammed into the roof of the cargo van and the vibrations wracked his arms and hands. They had been numb from the first few hits but now they were so numb it hurt.

"Uh.. shell Leo we didn't get through that time either." Their best course of action was to try and escape through the roof of the van. If they were in a hole filled with cement going through the sides would be a waste of time. Going through the ceiling, while they would both get coated in cement was the better choice. It was highly doubtful that the cement that leaked down through the hole above them would fill the van before they could crawl out.

"Give me a minute," he said as he too glared at the ding in the ceiling. "I can't feel my arms."

"I can't either but we're running out of time Leo," Raph pointed out.

"Alright, let's try again," Leo said tiredly as he held the sword aloft again and Raph wrapped his hands over his.

Both of them were already panting like they had gone on a run around the city and that was all they needed to figure out their air was running out.

-Break-

"Okay so what was the whole point of this again?" Mikey asked in frustration as they wandered through the construction site for the eight time looking for clues. They were both cautious the first four times but now it was more than obvious that there was no one there, possible since the construction workers went home the day before. "I think that your phone's on the fritz."

"No, everything is working correctly, Mikey," Don said from where he was standing, consulting his phone for a the third time since they got down into the site. "They were definitely here for a bit before the signals went out."

Mikey sighed and glanced around the barren site again. "Well maybe they buried them in the dirt and then hauled Leo and Raph off elsewhere?" He guessed as he kicked at a small stone and began to pout as he walked around trying to make it look like he was doing something besides waiting for Don to come up with a new plan.

"Unlikely," Don said as he looked over the confusing array of tracks and tire marks on the ground. He had been trying to make sense of it but the Foot and Dragons' activities were marred by the footprints of the workers from the day before. If anything he was just giving himself a massive headache. "A couple feet wouldn't have enough density to prevent the signals from getting out. Now if they put them in a metal box it would be like what just happened to us in the van earlier."

"Maybe they were thrown into another armored van like us? Oh no, if they got taken to Jerse- Oh ew! Ah gross," Mikey complained mid-sentence as he stepped back away from what he had thought was a solid concrete pour. "Shouldn't they have a sign saying wet cement or something?" He griped as he tried to shake the cement off his foot with limited success.

"Wet cement?" Don parroted as he looked back at where his brother was trying to flick the rest of it off his foot. Don started over, pulling his steel pipe bo from his holder. "Even if they poured that at five in the afternoon it would be set a lot more than that." He stuck his bo into it and it easily slid down about four feet.

"Don't tell me they buried them in cement," Mikey said looking very unimpressed as Don pulled his bo free and stuck it into the wet cement in a different spot and at a slight angle. "Seriously I'm going to have to have a talk with those guys the next time I run into them about creativity."

There was a dull thump from the end of his bo. "I found something, metal by the amount of vibrations I have traveling up my arm from hitting it."

"Ten bucks it's a truck exactly like the one we were stuck in earlier."

"You're on," Don said giving his brother a quick handshake as he dropped the cement covered pipe on the ground. "Tell me when I've hit something," he said as he pointed to an excavator that had been left on site before heading for it at a quick clip.

"Um… How are we going to cut through the roof of the truck? Or are we going to go ahead and just pull the whole thing out?"

The door to the cab was unlocked and it didn't take much to hot wire a bypass to start the rig up. "I'm pretty sure the hydraulics on this thing can open that truck like a tin can!" Don yelled over the sound of the engine kicking on. He knew he had to work fast but still be careful. The excavator was going to wake up half the neighborhood but if he wasn't careful he might accidently crush the truck.

Mikey had no training in ground signaling but it was easy enough to get the gist of things with a thumbs up or a furious kill sign as he looked at what Don was doing with absolute horror playing across his face. It was over the top and overly dramatic but it worked. Under his careful and exuberant guidance Donatello first scraped all the cement of the top of the truck and then settled the bucket down onto it. With a signal from Mikey and activating the actuators that rolled the bucket back towards him, Don pierced the top of the truck and then pull the arm back, ripping the top open like a cheap can of tuna.

Mikey gave Don a thumb up and drew a finger across his throat in the class kill it signal before peering back into the hole. "How are you guys holding up?"

Both Leo and Raph were still picking themselves up off the floor, probably having hit the deck and covering their heads when Don started on opening the roof. Both were sucking in air hard and Mikey was worried for a moment that they both were going to keel over from heart attacks. "We're good Mikey," Leo was forcing himself to draw air in and hold it for a moment before letting it out. Shell, fresh air had never been so good.

"Cut it a little close didn't ya?" Raph grumbled as he took Mikey's offered hand and pulled himself out of the truck with Mikey acting as a base. "Another few minutes and we would have both been passed out on the floor."

"On both accounts," Don said as he raced over to the edge of the hole and offered Leo a hand. Several dogs were barking nearby and there were sirens in the distance. "Let's get out of here before the cops show up."

The police arrived minutes later to an empty construction site and what appeared to be a van buried in cement and partially excavated with its roof ripped open. The senior office sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, "So much for a simple disturbance call," he griped while his younger partner shone a flashlight down into the open space curiously.

Neither of the officers were aware that they were being watched by a group of mutant turtles on the roof of a nearby apartment building. They had been fine leaving the scene but as Raph and Leo began to climb they started breathing heavier than normal. Don called a halt when they reached the rooftop. The elder two turtles were obviously still suffering from oxygen deprivation.

"I dodn't know about you guys but my feet hurt," Mikey whined from where he was sitting on not quite look out duty on top of the shed covering the roof access after both groups had shared the individual adventures with each other. "Seriously, I've been all over the city tonight and that's not even exaggerating anything."

"This was all just a cover up," Leo restated his early theory. "They were trying to distract us from something."

"And I say we go find out what," Raph growled in agreement.

"It's going to have to wait," Don said, acting as a voice of reason. "Neither of you are doing well, whatever that gas was that Hun got you with has only been exacerbated by the lack of oxygen in that van. I need to do a full toxicology set on both of you. Besides it's pushing four and Sensei is probably worried."

"And so is my bed," Mikey said continuing his pity party. "And Klunk! Shell at this rate he might miss breakfast!"

"Oh and Mikey," Don said with innocent sweetness. "It was a cargo van not a truck. You owe me ten bucks."

"Shell even my piggy bank is being made to suffer?! Will this night ever end?"

It did eventually end after a long discussion with Master Splinter at the kitchen table over a pot of tea as Donatello went back on forth from his brothers to the lab. After their Father was caught up on what had happened he let them off of morning practice and after Donatello declared that Leo and Raph's bodies would naturally break down and dispose of the chemicals that was only adding to their fatigue with no added complications, he order his sons to bed to catch up on some much needed sleep for the day.

It wasn't until around three in the afternoon, as Mikey was starting to make a late lunch and even later breakfast that Don came over for more coffee and some papers in his hand. "I think I figured out what the Foot and the Dragons were up too last night," he announced to his still waking up family as he dropped the papers on the table near Leo.

Leo took several and flipped through them as Don kept talking. "Last night a computer electronics company about a block from where we were ambushed was broken into and had several hundred thousands dollars in computer parts were stolen."

"A typical robbery like that doesn't sound like something that would warrant all the running around we did." Mikey complained from where he was starting to put pancake batter into the skillet.

"The robbery was most likely just a front," Don answered as he reached into the stack of papers he brought over and pulled one from it. Handing it to Leo, "Less than a year ago that same company was awarded a government contract to develop a new missile guidance program."

"Steal the computer parts and no one would check to see if there was an intrusion against the mainframe," Leo said grimly as he continued to scan through the documents.

"Oh no, they would have checked," Donatello corrected him. "But they wouldn't have checked to deeply. The Foot probably copied everything during a program update or piggy backed on a security scan. That wouldn't have alerted the company's cyber security programs and wouldn't be flagged in the history as malicious activity."

"So what? The Shredder has missile codes now?" Raph was still clinging for dear life on his first cup of coffee and had spent most of the conversation until now with his arms folded and his head down on them.

"No but he does have one shell of a good program to launch his own."

"Can you hack in and delete it off their servers?" Mikey asked as he flipped the first batch of pancakes.

"Considering the last time I managed to get in there was after convincing a bunch of hackers in Europe to try to get in and then slipped through the chaos of them bombarding the firewalls using some coding flaws the April pointed out and even then I was only able to navigate in there for about thirty seconds before I was detected and had a malicious worm program back fill into my system which took down three of my dummy servers and forced me to cut the power to the whole lair before it could trace our location and made me rebuilt half my mainframe." Don ticked off each instance with his fingers. Mikey at least had the decency to look contrite. "No I don't think that's a good idea. Especially since I know they have beefed up their security even more after that little incident."

"Besides by now they probably already have everything backed up, both on and offline," Leo dropped the papers back onto the table with a sigh. "About the only thing we can do is be ready for when they decide to employ it."

"And when they do," Raph said as he finally sat up off the table. "I got dibs on Hun. I owe him a knuckle sandwich or five for last night."

"Speaking of owe. Mikey! Where's my ten bucks?"

"Errr… Can you take an I owe you?"

"You were betting without money again?"

"Dude! Yesterday was new comic book day. I need to feed my need!"

Leo looked over at Raph as the argument continued in the background. "I want to say something along the lines of 'at least their arguments aren't serious' but Don's only on his second cup of coffee isn't he?"

"Yup," Raph agreed watching the scene in amusement. "That and he's only like ten bucks away from that shiny new welding hood he's been drooling over for the past month."

"Don, put down the tea towel! Put down the tea towel! SHELL! That hurts! Don! Stop it!"

_~Fin~_


End file.
